Alternating jogger



Oct. 3, 1967 K. E. SWANSON ALTERNATING JOGGER 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 21, 1965 K. E. SWANYiiON ALTERNATING JOGGER Oct. 3, 1967 Filed 001:. 21, 1965 v 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 .FIEE- 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 I Filed Oct. 21, 1965 mvmrm WEE United States Patent 3,345,063 ALTERWATING JOGGER Kermit E. Swanson, Naperville, Ill., assignor to R. R.

Donnelley & Sons Company, a corporation of Dela- Ware Filed Oct. 21, 1965, Ser. No. 499,785 5 Claims. (Cl. 271-44) This invention relates to apparatus for use in the book binding industry, and in particular it relates to apparatus for aligning at least one portion of one edge of a stack of sheets or signatures in a supply box of an otherwise conventional gathering machine used in book binding.

The device of this application has its greatest value with a gathering machine equipped with the device of a co-pending application entitled, Apparatus for Feeding Packs of Sheets, United States Ser. No. 436,182, filed Mar. 1, 1965, now Patent No. 3,292,820, in the name of Karl Klingler and Kermit E. Swanson, and owned by a common assignee, or with other devices for feeding packs of sheets to the boxes of a gathering machine; but is very useful with any gathering machine, since it makes possible the feeding of packs of sheets which are not completely aligned edgewise.

In book binding, it is necessary to gather a complete set of signatures or sheets which make up a book; and a gathering machine has a line of supply boxes or hoppers each of which contains a supply of one of the signatures or sheets for a book. A swinging arm with gripper fingers which is associated with each box withdraws the lowermost signature from the box and deposits it on a gatherer belt. In order to be certain that a signature is gripped each time the mechanism operates, it is important that at least one portion (usually the middle portion) of one edge of every signature in the supply box be aligned with the forward end of the path of the gripper fingers on said swinging arm; otherwise the signature feeding mechanism may miss a signature. Conventional practice has been to align signatures along their entire length by manual jogging before the signatures are manually fed to the boxes or hoppers of a gathering machine.

Joggers can be constructed to vibrate and tamp against one edge of the stack of signatures or sheets to force the sheet or signature edges into complete alignment with the opposite wall of a box. Although the simultaneous vibratory jogging motion is reasonably effective, there are times when the signatures or sheets stick together and because the motion is always a substantially straight line repetitious motion, the sticking between sheets is not broken so that the stack is not properly aligned for feeding individual signatures to the gathering mechanism.

It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide an improved jogger mechanism that overcomes the problems of the prior art.

It is another object of this invention to provide an improved jogger mechanism having alternating jogging motions.

And still another object of this invention is to provide an improved apparatus for aligning portions of the edges of a stack of sheets or signatures by alternately jogging the stack on opposite sides of a center line of the stack.

And still a further object of this invention is to provide an improved feeding and aligning mechanism whereby sheets or signatures are fed with every actuation of the mechanism.

These and other objects and advantages will become apparent from the following description taken in connection with the drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevational view of the apparatus embodying my improved jogger mechanism;

FIGURE 2 is a cross sectional view taken along the line 2-2 of FIGURE 1 with parts of one portion broken away and shown in section;

FIGURE 3 is a cross sectional view taken the line 33 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 4 is a cross sectional view taken along the line 4-4 of FIGURE 3; and

FIGURE 5 is a somewhat reduced size cross sectional view taken along the line 55 of FIGURE 1.

In the co-pending application referred to above, an apparatus is described for feeding packs of sheets or signatures from a large stack of signatures in a magazine to the signature supply box of a conventional gathering machine. This invention is adapted for use with the apparatus of the co-pending application and is directed to the signature supply box of the conventional gathering machine and the means for assuring the alignment of the sheets or signatures in said supply box so that one sheet or signature can be unfailingly fed to the gathering machine with each stroke of the gathering mechanism. Where the present apparatus overlaps with the apparatus of the co-pending application, the same reference numerals have been used. However, it is to be understood that the present apparatus does not have to be used with the apparatus of the co-pending application and the disclosure and claims should not be limited by the overlap in the disclosure.

Referring to the drawings in greater detail, in FIG- URES 1 and 5 a signature supply box 150 is seen to include an upright front bar or stop 39, side guides 40 and 41, and an upright guide bar 42 spaced from and parallel to the stop 39. The guide bar .42 is adapted to be horizontally adjustable with respect to the stop 39 and the side guides 40 and 41 are adjustable with respect to each other so that the different sized sheets or signatures can be used in the supply box 156). The supply box 150 is carried by a frame 152 which is part of the gathering machine. The supply box 150 may be mounted below the pack feeding apparatus 31 of the co-pending application. Frame 152 has oppositely spaced side walls 30a and 30b between which the supply box 150 is operatively carried. One or more horizontally disposed support bars 153 are carried by the frame 152 underneath the supply box 150 for supporting the contents of said box. The walls 34a and 34b of the pack feeding apparatus 31 of the co-pending application are adapted to nest between the walls 30a and 30b when the present apparatus is used with said pack feeding apparatus 31.

The switch SW1 is associated with the pack feeding apparatus 31 and is mounted on the stop 39 with a switch arm a having a sensing finger f positioned to engage with the one edge of the stack of signatures. The switch SW1 is actuated when the top T of the stack of signatures B gets below a certain point so that a new pack of signatures will be fed from the pack feeding apparatus 31 by means of the coordinated movements between the pack carrying platform 88 and the lifting finger assembly 62 as described in detail in said co-pending application.

A conventional signature feeding mechanism is pivotally mounted between the side walls 30a and 30b of the frame 152 substantially on the centerline 156 of the supply box 159. The feeding mechanism has fingers 157, 158 which are coordinated to separate the bottom sheet or signature from the stack and to grip the edge of said separated signature between said fingers 157 and 158 and to pull said signature from the bottom of the stack for transmission to the saddle or belt of the gathering mechanism. The signature feeding mechanism 155 is mounted so that the finger 157 can knife between the two bottom signatures in the stack B so as to separate the bottom signature from the stack which will then be gripped and pulled from the stack. If the edges E of the signatures in the vicinity of the stop 39 are not fairly precisely aligned with the stop 39, it will not be possible for the finger 157 to separate out the single bottom signatures which of course is a malfunction in the operation.

So as to properly align the edges E of the stack of signatures B with the stop 39, at least in the area or vicinity of stop 39, the present invention provides a jogger mechanism. This mechanism 160 is comprised of a frame 161 carried by the walls 300 and 30b of the frame 152. A vertical support plate 162 extends downwardly from the frame 161 and has a motor 164 bolted thereto. A pair of spaced apart pillow blocks 166, 167 are bolted to the plate 162 with the axes of the bearings 168, 168 in said blocks lying along a common line which is parallel to the plane of said plate 162. An elongate drive shaft 169 is mounted in said bearings 168, 168' in the pillow blocks 166, 167 for rotation about the longitudinal axis of said shaft. One end of the shaft 169 has a relatively large sprocket gear 170 secured thereto about which a chain 172 is drivingly connected to a small sprocket wheel 173 mounted on the shaft 175 of the motor 164. Spaced inwardly from and between the pillow blocks 166, 167 are a pair of eccentric driver assemblies 177, 178, one of which will be described in detail.

The eccentric driver assembly 178 is composed of a hollow sleeve member 180 having a tongue or boss 181 radially projecting from one external surface thereof. The axis of an opening 182 in the sleeve member 180 is substantially parallel to the axis of an opening 182' in said tongue or boss 181. Positioned within the opening 182 in the sleeve member is a male-female member 183 which has a radially enlarged portion held in said sleeve by a thin washer 184 secured to said sleeve by a ring 185 and screws 186 and to said member 183 by seating in a groove 187 therein. The member 183 has an axially elongate bearing collar 188 in which is nested a tubular bearing 189 having an axially extending opening 190 therethrough which opening has its axis displaced radially from the axis of the bearing 189. The shaft 169 passes through the opening 190 in the bearing 189 and is keyed thereto at 191 so that the bearing 189 rotates with the shaft 169. Since the axis of the opening 190 in the bearing 189 is radially displaced from the true axis of the bearing, the bearing will act as an eccentric in a plane transverse to the axis of the shaft 169.

A U-shaped coupling 192 is rotatably secured to the boss 181 by a pin 193 which passes through the legs of the U and through the opening 182 in said boss 181. An extended portion 194 on the coupling 192 is threaded to receive the adjustable rod 195 in threading relation therewith. The rod 195 is locked to the coupling 192 and to a carrying plate 196 by means of lock nuts 197. One remote portion of the plate 196 has an enlarged transversely extending bearing sleeve 199 for sliding engagement with one of a pair of fixed guide rods 200 carried by the plate 162 of the frame 161. The sleeve 199 slides freely on guide 200 and is lubricated through grease cups 201. A jogger finger 202 is bolted to another end portion of the plate 196 and has a signature contact member 204 secured to the outer end thereof. The jogger finger 202, as can be seen in FIGURE 4, has a slightly offset shape with respect to the plate 196 and supports the contact member 204 in a resilient and cantilever fashion with respect to the rod 195 and plate 196. The rotating motion of the shaft 169 is converted to reciprocating motion of the U-shaped bracket 192, rod 195, plate 196 and contact member or pad 204 by means of the eccentric mounting of the shaft 169 with respect to the sleeve member 180 and by the guide 200 constraining the motion of the plate 196 to a linear path.

The member 177 is constructed substantially the same as member 178 except that the opening 206 in the bearing 189 is positioned diametrically opposite to the opening 190 of bearing 189. That is, the eccentricities of members 177, 178 are 180 out of phase so that the jogger contact members 204 and 204' carried. by the members 178 and 177 respectively will be positioned in two different planes with respect to the sheets or signatures being jogged. One jogger plate member 204 will be in engagement with the sheets while the other plate member 204' is spaced therefrom. As shown in FIGURE 2, the jogger plate members 204 and 204 are equally spaced from the centerline 156 passing through the center of the jogger mechanism 160 and through the center of the supply box 150.

With the motor 164 running, the shaft 169 will rotate the respective eccentric drives 177, 178 which will produce a reciprocating motion to the guided plates 196 carried by the rods 195 and brackets 192. The jogger contact members 204 and 204 will be reciprocated alternately on opposite sides of said centerline 156 with the member 204 being first in the forward position with member 204' retracted and then the member 204 in forward position and member 204 retracted. The one edge of the stack of signatures B in the supply box will be jogged and vibrated first by one member, i.e. 204, on one side of the centerline 156 which will jog or jam the edges E of the signatures on one side of the centerline more firmly against the stop 39 on that side of the centerline. In particular, any signatures that have one edge sticking out in a direction toward the jogger will have the half of the signature engaged by the jogger member 204 pivoted somewhat about the centerline 156 as the edge of said half is contacted and driven inwardly toward the stop 39. As said jogger 204 retracts, the jogger 204 moves forward and strikes the edge of the other half of the protruding signature to pivot that half about the centerline as it is driven into the stack and toward the stop 39. Several alternating jogs from the spaced jogger members 204, 204 as the signatures move down in the stack in the supply box 150 will soon align all of the middle portions of the edges E of the stack with the stop 39, so that the feeding mechanism 155 can properly function to individaully withdraw one signature from the stack with each operation of said mechanism 155.

The alternating jogging of the stack on opposite sides of the centerline creates a twisting or pivoting force between the juxtaposed misaligned sheets or signatures which will break the initial sticking between surfaces of the sheets or signatures, making it possible to thread the misaligned sheet into alignment. The sticking between sheets can be created by the print on the sheets or signatures sometimes drying after the sheets are stacked and in drying bonds or sticks to the adjoining sheet in a very minor but significant fashion. The sticking is significant in that the weight of the stack together with the sticking between sheets prevented prior jogging from breaking the adhesion whereupon the edges of the sheets were not properly aligned.

The guide bar 42 is fixed near its lower end portion to a rearwardly extending plate 42a which plate is adjustably fastened by screw 212 to a bracket 213 carried by the walls 30a and 30b of the frame 152. The guide bar 42 is adjusted relative to the stop 39 so as to accommodate wider sheets or signatures B. When the guide bar 42 is positioned relative to the stop 39, the jogger members or pads 204, 204 are likewise adjusted so that in their forwardmost position they will be in snug engagement with the edge of the stack of signatures B. The adjustment of the members 204, 204 is accomplished by threading the nuts 197 that are on opposite sides of plate 196 along the axis of the rods until the faces of the members 204, 204' are in the proper position relative to the edges of the stack of signatures.

While this invention is susceptible of embodiment in many different forms, there is shown in the drawings and described in detail an embodiment of the invention with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the principles of the invention and is not intended to limit the invention to the embodiment illustrated. The scope of the invention Will be pointed out in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. Jogger means for a sheet gathering machine that has a sheet supply box provided with reciprocating gripper means for removing successive sheets from the bottom of a supply in the box, and an upright front stop above said gripper means, said jogger means comprising a pair of sheet edge contacting pads equally spaced on opposite sides of a vertical plane passing through said gripper means and said front stop, and means for reciprocating said jogger means along a line generally coplanar with said sheets, said reciprocating means including means for moving said contacting pads alternately into contact with said sheets first on one side of said vertical plane and then on the other side thereof whereby at least one portion of one edge of each sheet will be aligned with a corresponding portion of one edge of all other sheets in said stack in the vicinity of said vertical plane.

2. Jogger means for a sheet gathering machine that has a sheet supply box with a vertically disposed front stop, gripper means for removing successive sheets from the bottom of a supply in the box, said jogger means comprising at least two spaced apart sheet edge contacting pads positioned on opposite sides of a vertical plane passing through said gripper means, and means for re ciprocating said contacting pads along a line generally coplanar with said sheets, said means for reciprocating said pads including means for moving first one of said contacting pads into contact with one edge of said sheets on one side of said vertical plane and then moving another of said contacting pads into contact wit-h said edge of said sheets on the other side of said vertical plane whereby at least one portion of one edge of each sheet will be aligned with a corresponding portion of one edge of all other sheets in said stack at least in the vicinity of said vertical plane.

3. A machine as claimed in claim 2 wherein said contacting pads are equally spaced from said vertical plane.

4. A machine as claimed in claim 2 wherein said contacting pads are adjustable relative to said front stop so as to accommodate Wider sheets in said supply box.

5. In a gathering machine having a frame, a supply box on said frame having a vertically disposed stop means, a stack of sheets in said supply box and gripper means for removing the bottom sheet from said supply box in combination with apparatus for aligning the edges of the sheets in said stack at least in the vicinity of said stop means, said apparatus comprising jogging means carried by said frame and having sheet contacting members positioned on opposite sides of the centerline of said gripper means, means for reciprocating said jogging means along a line generally coplanar with the sheets in said stack including means for alternately reciprocating said jogging means into contact with the edges of said stack of sheets first on one side of said centerline and then on the other for butting at least a portion of one common edge of said stack of sheets against said stop means of said supply box for aligning the common edges of said sheets in said stack at least in the vicinity of said stop means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 11/1962 Obenshain 271-89 7/1965 Larsson 27l89 

1. JOGGER MEANS FOR A SHEET GATHERING MACHINE THAT HAS A SHEET SUPPLYING BOX PROVIDED WITH RECIPROCATING GRIPPER MEANS FOR REMOVING SUCCESSIVE SHEETS FROM THE BOTTOM OF A SUPPLY IN THE BOX, AND AN UPRIGHT FRONT STOP ABOVE SAID GRIPPER MEANS, SAID JOGGER MEANS COMPRISING A PAIR OF SHEET EDGE CONTACTING PADS EQUALLY SPACED ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF A VERTICAL PLANE PASSING THROUGH SAID GRIPPER MEANS AND SAID FRONT STOP, AND MEANS FOR RECIPROCATING SAID JOGGER MEANS ALONG A LINE GENERALLY COPLANER WITH SAID SHEET, SAID RECIPROCATING MEANS INCLUDING MEANS FOR MOVING SAID CONTACTING PADS ALTERNATELY INTO CONTACT WITH SAID SHEETS FIRST ON ONE SIDE OF SAID VERTICAL PLANE AND THEN ON THE OTHER SIDE THEREOF WHEREBY AT LEAST ONE PORTION OF ONE EDGE OF EACH SHEET WILL BE ALIGNED WITH A CORRESPONDING PORTION OF ONE EDGE OF ALL OTHER SHEETS IN SAID STACK IN THE VICINITY OF SAID VERTICAL PLANE. 